I am in the process of doing up a Business Plan to buy an existing business. My accountant is away on holidays and I have to do the 3 year projections. The book keeper for the store I am buying sent me an excel spreadsheet template that she said should allow me to work through it on my own.

YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! :shrug: My brain hurts from trying to input all the info and make up what seems reasonable. Frankly, there are things I don't even understand.

Anyone know of any websites that can help walk a person through it? :confused:

:pray:

14+kitties

July 14th, 2009, 09:45 PM

L4H is an accountant, isn't she? :shrug: Maybe PM her.

SnowDancer

July 14th, 2009, 11:09 PM

Can you reach your accountant through his/her office - and perhaps get a recommendation for someone to prepare the Business Plan for you? I would strongly suggest that you not do it yourself - not only because it would be based on a spreadsheet recommended by the bookkeeper - but because you appear to be having difficulty preparing it and this will be very evident in the final product. I am assuming here that you will have to present the Business Plan to your bank. I used to work for a financial company that provided business loans and you would be appalled at some of the business plans that were submitted - and some of these were for very considerable amounts of money - the company did not as a rule fund small businesses - only as an exception. Hopefully the process had already been started so that you would have all of the financial information from the company you are interested in buying that your bank (and you) would require - such as the past 5 years' financials.

Dracko

July 14th, 2009, 11:29 PM

Yup, I have the last 5 years of financials and I do plan on seeing an accountant prior to ever presenting it for funding but since my regular one is away on holidays, 2 that were recommended by friends are as well AND my uncle who lives in the next province would help but he is out of the country for 3 weeks I am getting impatient.

Basically, I want to get as much of this done as I can rather than sit here for weeks and wait. I've been in this industry for 21 years and have a good grasp on it. As a matter of fact, I was co-owner of this business when it opened 10 years ago. (I sold out to my partner after 1 year because I had to move.) I prepared the inital business plan when we opened with a little help from the Women's Entrepreneurs Association here in Saskatchewan.

Btw, the Excel spreadsheet template I am using is Pro-Forma and doesn't seem as complicated as I thought. Not saying it's easy, but not as gobbledy gook as earlier.

SnowDancer

July 15th, 2009, 08:41 AM

Good luck. My husband is a CA and also suggested an accountant. My personal favourite when I was working in M & A was the fellow who submitted a less than stellar business plan - and actually listed as one of his "objectives" - to one day be able to prepare and present a business plan! (He didn't get the loan - no surprise there.)